UWS Vows To Fight Plan For 107th Street Shelter As Women Move Out

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — The city has already begun to transfer women out of an Upper West Side shelter that is being re-purposed to house men, but city officials and local residents are vowing to fight the city plan and have those women move back into the West 107th Street site.

Upper West Siders and neighborhood elected officials held a rally Monday in front of the West 107th Street shelter, located between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenues, and said that at least 14 women have already been moved out of the site.

Women currently feel "intimidated" by the city after seeing other shelter residents being moved to sites as far as Flushing, Queens, Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer said Monday. One of the women who was transferred to a different shelter now lives two hours away from her job, the borough president said.

"We want these women to stay, we're calling on the Department of Homeless Services to stop the displacement immediately," Brewer said as neighbors who gathered in front of the shelter chanted "let them stay!"

Wanda Mercado lived in the West 107th Street shelter for 10 months before moving out in September after finding permanent housing. She said that she personally knows some of the women who have been transferred from the shelter and that it brought her to tears to learn about the move.

"It broke my heart, because I've been with these women — you bond with them you make friends," Mercado said. "You share each other's struggles, because it's not easy."

City Councilman Mark Levine called the city's plan for the shelter a "profound injustice" during the rally and said that the Department of Homeless Services has "no public policy rationale" for its plan for the site. State Assemblymember Danny O'Donnell also vowed to fight the city's plan, saying that the Upper West Side is a "community that welcomes people in need."

Opponents of the city's plan for the West 107th Street shelter insisted Monday that their opposition is not based in the fact that men experiencing homelessness will be moving into the site. Neighborhoods around the city, such as Midtown's Billionaires Row and Washington Heights, have opposed the construction of new men's shelters.

Public Advocate Jumaane Williams said Monday that he wants to "push back" on people's fears of men's shelters, but said that the city's lack of communication with Upper West Side residents and the women living in the West 107th Street shelter

"This is not how you should treat anybody, whether they are homeless or not," Williams said.

The public advocate added that sudden moves for people living in transitional housing can present a traumatic experience and said that the positive relationships built between shelter residents and neighbors represented a case of the shelter system "operating how it's supposed to."

Community Board 7 voted last week to unanimously approve a resolution opposing the city's plan for the West 107th Street shelter. The board's chair Roberta Semer said Monday that the board and representatives for elected officials met with the Department of Homeless services on Friday but left the meeting with "no answers."

The Department of Homeless Services has said that the West 107th Street shelter is being transitioned to serve men because it sees an increase in demand for beds among that population as the weather gets colder. A spokesperson for the agency disputed claims that women living in the shelter who don't want to move may be displaced from the shelter system.

DHS expects that men may be moved into the shelter by the end of October, a department spokesperson said.